Well, it’s not like he didn’t tell us he was gonna do this. Matt Zane has been campaigning and defending his in-process documentary on the late Wayne Static and his wife Tera Wray, for a while now. Both of their families have actively spoken against it, though Zane is adamant that he had both Static and Wray’s blessings beforehand. The doc is supposed to cover the tumultuous yet beautiful nature of their relationship, and include some unreleased solo material from Static himself. Zane’s keeping up on part of that promise currently, since he’s just shared a clip from an unfinished Wayne Static track called “Infiltrator.” Check out the clip below.
Zane shared the following on his Instagram:
An unfinished, previously unheard track recorded by late Static-X frontman Wayne Static has surfaced as part of filmmaker Matt Zane’s ongoing unauthorized documentary project.
According to Zane, the song was intended to appear in his forthcoming film about Wayne and his late wife Tera Wray. However, the estates of Wayne and Tera, along with Static-X, have declined to grant permission for the unreleased music to be used.
“I want to make it clear, I’d love to finish and give Wayne’s fans his final recording but the families and Static-X aren’t allowing it,” said Zane. “I’d give 100% of the profits of the music to Wayne’s and Tera’s family as long as the recordings were kept in their original form. They were recorded as Wayne Static solo music, not Static-X.”
The Backstory
Zane says the material dates back to 2008 while he was directing Tera Wray in her music series Radium. At the time, Wayne offered music to support the project.“Warner Brothers stopped us but not before Wayne gave me a bunch of stuff,” Zane explained. “I cover the entire ordeal in the documentary. I have a video of Wayne publicly admitting he wrote music for the series.”
Now, years later, Zane has chosen to move forward with completing select portions of the material for inclusion in the documentary and its potential soundtrack.
“There are songs that I won’t touch that Wayne wrote 100% of,” Zane stated. “But all the misc. riffs and other ideas are what I’ll use. Wayne liked what I was doing with them so I figure I’m on the right track.”
Singer Search Begins
Due to legal restrictions preventing the use of Wayne Static’s original vocal tracks, Zane is now launching an open call for vocalists who believe they can step in and honor Wayne’s style and legacy.“It’s just like what Jonathan Davis did for the Queen of the Damned soundtrack,” Zane said. “He wasn’t allowed to sing on that soundtrack so he brought in other singers, including Wayne!”
Fans and vocalists interested in participating are invited to submit a recording of themselves performing their favorite Wayne Static song to:
Zane’s doc is said to include six previously unreleased and/or unfinished bits of Wayne Static creations, with “Infiltrator” seemingly one of them. Since Static and Wray’s families have been so staunchly against the release of the doc, which Zane has been attempting to pay for and crowdfund to make, they haven’t granted him permission to use any of Static’s recorded material for inclusion in it. Zane’s trying to MacGyver this of sorts, by now launching a search to find a new vocalist to record Static’s vocals so the tracks can be used after all.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but this seems like a whole lot of trouble to go through for something the estate’s don’t want. But, what do I know?